Author Harlan Ellison (b.1934) died on June 28. Ellison began his professional career in 1956 with the publication of the short story “Glowworm” in Infinity Science Fiction. Mostly known for his short stories like are “’Repent, Harlequin,!’ Said the Ticktockman,” “Jeffty is Five,” “A Boy and His Dog,” and” “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream,” Ellison also wrote for television and film, writing the Star Trek episode “The City on the Edge of Forever,” among other works. He is noted for editing the anthologies Dangerous Visions and Again, Dangerous Visions. Ellison contracted stories for a third volume, The Last Dangerous Visions, which has failed to appear to date, although some of the stories have been printed elsewhere. Ellison has won four Nebula Awards and was named a SFWA Grand Master in 2005. He has also won seven Hugo Awards, five Bram Stoker Awards, and a World Fantasy Award among others. He has received a Special Award from the World Science Fiction Society (Worldcon) on three separate occasions and was the Guest of Honor at Iguanacon, the 36th Worldcon, held in 1978 in Phoenix, AZ. He was named a Grandmaster by World Horror Con and received Life Achievement Awards from the International Horror Guild, the Eaton Award, Bram Stoker Award, the Forry Award, and the World Fantasy Awards. In 2011, he was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

A new speculative fiction reading series, Harlem Ess-Eff, will begin in Harlem in Manhattan on April 9 at 6:00 at Silvana at 300 W. 116th Street. The inaugural reading will include Golden Baker and Erin Roberts. Both Baker and Roberts are graduates of Odyssey. Roberts’s work has appeared in Clarkesworld and PodCastle.For more information…

Joey Yu has received the 2018 Terran Prize, including a full tuition scholarship to the Taos Toolbox Master Class. Yu has published several novels in China and was won the Excellence Award from the Taiwan Fantasy Foundation. Taos Toolbox will be taught by Nancy Kress and Walter Jon Williams. Guest speakers will include Carrie Vaughn, E.M. Tippetts, and George R.R. Martin, the last of whom founded the Terran Prize.

Author David Bischoff (b.1951) died on March 19. Bischoff’s first novel, The Seeker, was published in 1976. His 1977 story, “Tin Woodman,” written with Dennis R. Bailey, was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. Other novels included two books in the Bill, the Galactic Hero series, two Dr. Dimension books written with John DeChancie, and several film and television novelizations. He also wrote screenplays for the television series Dinosaucers, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Space Precinct.

Scottish author Philip Kerr (b.1956) died on March 23. Writing as P.B. Kerr, he wrote the Children of the Lamp series as well as the novel One Small Step. Kerr also wrote under his own name and several books using the pseudonym Bernard Gunther.

Writer Karen Anderson (b.1932) died on March 17. Anderson was married to Poul Anderson, with whom she often collaborated on works such as The King of Ys and The Last Viking, although she also wrote some solo stories. Anderson was active in costuming and is believed to have been the first person to use the term “filk music” in print. Anderson helped co-found the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Physicist Stephen Hawking (b.1942) died on March 14. Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. He published the popular book A Brief History of Time and has played himself in episodes of The Big Bang Theory and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Hawking has suffered from ALS and was confined to a wheelchair, using a computer to communicate and speak.

Author Mary Rosenblum (b.1952) died on March 11 when the small plane she was flying crashed near Battle Ground, Washington. Rosenblum won the Compton Crook Award in 1994 for her debut novel, The Drylands and followed up with several other novels, writing mysteries as Mary Freeman, her maiden name. Her short story, “Sacrifice” won the 2009 Sidewise Award for Alternate History.

Author Kate Wilhelm (b.1928) died on March 8. Wilhelm began publishing in 1956 with the story “The Pint-Sized Genie” and her first sf novel, The Clone, written with Theodore L. Thomas, was nominated for the Nebula Award. She won the Hugo Award twice, including for her novel Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang and the Nebula three times. She helped establish the SFWA and Clarion Workshop and helped run the early Milford Writers Workshops. Along with husband Damon Knight, she was a Pro Guest of Honor at Noreascon Two and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2003. She received an inaugural Solstice Award in 2009 and in 2016, the awards was renamed the Kate Wilhelm Solstice Award in her honor.

SFWA has announced that Bud Sparhawk will receive this year’s Kevin O’Donnell, Jr. Service to SFWA Award on March 19 at the SFWA Nebula Conference in Pittsburgh. In addition to serving as a director, treasurer and CFO for the organization, he has also advised the Emergency Medical Fund and the Grants Committee and established SFWA’s Financial Advisory Committee.